Bypass Patient said to me 3 years Post Surgery...

Saturday, September 01, 2012

I am gaining all my weight back! I still can’t get the hang of this weight-loss thing!” I went to the football game last night and saw a friend who lost 100 lbs in 1 year after having bypass surgery and is now gaining her weight back just 2 years later.

She is depressed, confused, deflated, and can’t believe it is happening again and eventually she will probably be included in the large group of people who fail to get to, and maintain, a healthy weight with Weight Loss Surgery.

I also have lapband friends who have not lost any weight with their bands at all and who are still on the yo-yo dieting system of losing a pound or two or five, maybe, and then gaining back eight. They are constantly changing from diet to diet and eating out all the time and they really haven’t changed their old ways of doing things since surgery. And just like my friend above, “They still can’t get the hang of the weight-loss thing either.”

My own primary care physician said to me when I first started thinking about surgery and said, “I have seen many of my patients do very well with the lapband and kept their weight off but then I have a male friend who got the lapband and lost 200 lbs at first, but he stopped doing the work he needed to do and started putting stuff like chicken fried steak and gravy in a blender and drinking it! He gained back 250 lbs!! My Dr. told me this example so that I would know full well that I would have to be willing to do the work and change my lifestyle or having surgery wouldn’t work for me either.

I thought to myslef: OMG! CFS with gravy in a blender!! Are you freaking kidding me? Why would you continue to do things the old way that got you fat in the first place after having surgery?

Most people who have surgery are doing it because they think they don't have any other choice and this is the last chance of living a thin healthy life. I was one of them.... I was so fat at 265 and had lost a million pounds and gained a million plus more back over 40 years, that I had given up the hope completely and at 5'2" I was on my way to 300 lbs and death.

And so, here I rant and shout to myself and others for us to wake up!--It makes me very sad that even with having surgery and being laid out on a table and having a Dr. cut your insides out and re-route your innards or having a band unnaturally placed around your stomach with a tube running to a port that can be filled with fluid like a car that gets gas, some people have not been successful. WHY…?

It’s NOT the surgery that is going to take or keep the weight off people!! Initially the band just forces us to re-learn new habits. After a while, we are expected to learn, follow the rules, and change.

If we don’t change our stress levels, eating and exercise choices, and overall personal lifestyle choices, we will be right back into the same boat that we were in before surgery. OBESE!

The surgery is a tool to help us but We HAVE TO CHANGE! It is not a "magic pill or magic wand." WE HAVE TO CHANGE.

If I give up or diminish my resolve to lose weight by saying passive things like “I’ve done the best I could” when in reality I have not, then I don’t have a right to complain that my surgery didn’t work.

It wasn’t the surgery that didn’t work—we didn’t do our part and use our tool. Who says that having wls is taking the easy way out? It’s NOT an easy way out—we still have to do the same work as everyone else who wants to get healthy. It is just a tool to help us do the hard work, that’s all it is.

If you don't lose weight with WLS then maybe you need to go back and evaluate what YOU are doing that needs to CHANGE. At least go back and follow the basic guidelines you were given post-surgery and start again. Get that spark back; don’t just lie down and say, Oh Well, it is what it is…..fight back!

It’s your life that we’re talking about here! Don’t settle for mediocrity. Achieve your goals—all of them. You CAN do it! Don’t give up! And for heaven’s sake change your lifestyle--don’t become a statistic of the wls failures.

KLOE23
AWESOME and very well put! These are all things that people need to be reminded of on their journey...not matter what weight loss journey they are on. It's all about you and how you chose to react to the situation. Thanks for sharing this. 1923 days ago

SUSIEWHITE1109
FANTASTIC BLOG!!!! I have to learn over and over...everyday, that living at a healthy weight is about living a healthy lifestyle. Eating healthy food in the correct portions, and staying active with exercise. The solution is permanent behavioral change.

I so understand the struggles of the person who put a CFS in the blender...I hadn't thought of that idea, but with my history of food addiction and compulsive eating, I certainly wouldn't put it past me to do the same thing when I was having a bad day!

Addiction to food is a real and deadly disease. I know that everyone who has bariatric surgery is not necessarily suffering from the disease of food addiction, but many of us are, and the steps to recovery require a willingness to get really honest, ask for help, and use the tools of recovery on a daily, lifelong basis!

Thank you for sharing this blog Paula - I feel sure it will help alot of people who read it! 1928 days ago

DAWNDMOORE40
You said it! In everything we do regarding weight loss, you have to be able to change your ways or nothing is going to work! It's that way with any addiction! If you aren't willing to have the ability to believe in yourself as a person, then you need to work on changing what you don't like inside before you can change your body! I hold stead fast to the truth that God made us! He wants us to take care of our bodies! I'm not saying in any way that I am perfect, but I do my best! I wake up with the attitude I need to workout and have been that way for years! I wake up believing I can eat my best, but don't always do that. I just have to committ to it! We are all here on this site for a common purpose and we help each other, but you have to do the work too! Amen and thanks for sharing!1929 days ago

CASE4GRACE
YES, YES...A MILLION TIMES YES!!!!! This was stated perfectly. I wish that everyone who has already had or is considering weight loss surgery could read this. Thank you Paula for sharing this blog. You are the best!

MDGARDENGIRL
WOW !!! Said only the way you can say it Paula!!! This can be said for anyone who chooses a specific diet and loses 100lbs and gains it back. If your commitment isn't to a better life, then you aren't going to make it. My surgeon told me, "I can fix your stomach. I can't fix your head."

SILLYLILME
Nothing worth having is easy. I too have seen what you have and unless people get their eating habits under control NO surgery is going to help them. It's not a diet or a quick fix, it's a lifestyle change. 1929 days ago